A concert pianist and organist who enjoys the gift of perfect pitch can be dangerous.
That description applies all the more to such an individual who enters the Brothers of Holy Cross and becomes a director of choirs, choruses and glee clubs, who arranges music for voice and keyboard instruments, who performs on piano and organ in concert, and who composes and publishes choral music. Anything less than perfection can hardly be tolerated.
If only that were all! Br. Daniel Kane of Cleveland, Ohio, is such an individual, though the perfection he demands of his students and choral groups, and toward which he drives himself relentlessly, does not detract from his friendly, deferential nature and his always lively and witty interpretation of both life and composers in his artistic performances. And, as if his music were not enough, Br. Daniel took time out after nearly 30 years of classroom and musical teaching and studied to become a registered nurse, a description he has been entitled to since 1989.
Br. Daniel joined Holy Cross in 1954. After doing his undergraduate work in music at Notre Dame and fitting in a major in education on the side, he began a teaching career beginning at St. Joseph High School, South Bend, Indiana, where he was on the faculty from 1958-1970, during the last two years of which he also taught and conducted at nearby Holy Cross Junior College.
In 1970 he left South Bend for Gates Mills, Ohio, and Gilmour Academy, a residential middle and secondary school sponsored and administered by the Brothers of Holy Cross. He has remained there ever since, at times changing hats as needs and circumstances suggest.
Br. Daniel has been a faculty member of Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, but his influence has reached out much farther than that one school. He has also been a faculty member of John Carroll University; a music staff member and later music director and organist of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Gates Mills; a nurse at Meridia-Huron Hospital, Cleveland; manager of health services at Gilmour Academy; and, most recently, Home Health Care RN for the Benjamin Rose Institute in Cleveland. His “second career” is largely associated with assisting elderly patients whose needs suggest home visitation by medical personnel.
As if he did not have sufficient irons in the fire to keep him busy full time in the Cleveland area, Br. Daniel volunteers to prepare and organize the music for liturgies connected with Midwest Province celebrations at Notre Dame, in particular the annual observance of the anniversaries of religious profession for province members. The majestic organ in the loft of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart speaks of God’s grandeur as expressed beautifully under Br. Daniel’s capable fingers, and in a way few are privileged to hear. Those who exit before the postlude is completed may miss the best part of the program.
Br. Daniel’s always youthful appearance and his vitality belie his age and the fact that he will celebrate his 50th anniversary of religious vows in 2005. However, his study and preparation methods are clearly illustrative of the care and unhurried pace associated with an aging generation. The hours spent in practice to keep his fingers supple and his mind clear are, and have been since childhood, uncountable. His concentration is intense, as it must be. These characteristics he has carried over into his care for the health of others. It is likely that without much trouble he could author a revealing work on the place of music in the prevention and healing of physical ills.
Nothing done by Br. Daniel is done in any other manner than to the absolute best of his ability. Both the world of music and of medicine, each in its own way and among those influenced by his ministry, have benefited by his presence, personality and perfectionism. He, as only he can do, has associated with the Creator to enrich the lives of everyone with whom he comes in contact.
